Back to the drawing board: Hillsborough BOC suspends Cross Connection Control Program

Town Utilities Director K. Marie Strandwitz and Town Utilities Infrastructure Protection Supervisor Troy Miller treated attendees to a presentation of Hillsborough's Cross Connection Control Program at the May 8 Board of Commissioners meeting.

Following a lengthy discussion at their May 8 meeting, the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners opted to temporarily put the kibosh on the Town's Cross Connection Control Program mandating area swimming pool owners to purchase and install back flow prevention devices/assemblies to impede the contamination of the public water system.

The three-hour affair featured comments from elected officials, town staff and residents who weighed in on a series of letters sent by the Town requiring those with above and underground pools on their property to spend anywhere from $2,000-$4,000 on cross-connection controls to mitigate potential hazards caused by sudden changes in pressure. These same local stakeholders would also be subject to annual inspections costing them about $200, as specified in the notices that were mailed earlier in the year.

A comprehensive presentation defining cross connections and how back pressure or back siphonage can occur was offered by Town Utilities Director K. Marie Strandwitz and Town Utilities Infrastructure Protection Supervisor Troy Miller that preceded a host of public speakers opposing their program.

"What we say in simplistic terms when I’m talking to residents or really consumers, I say: ‘Once we give you water, we don't want it back,’" quipped Miller.

Similarly, Strandwitz — an engineer since 1996 — communicated how a homeowner's choice of adding and maintaining a swimming pool comes with many consequences.

To that end, she described back pressure as an issue that often occurs when a private system is located higher than the public system, which can emerge at higher elevations or if water is forced through by pumps.

She continued: "Back siphonage is a more likely event and that is where the pressure in the public system drops and the contaminated water can be sucked into the public system. A more common event can be water main breaks, which we have several in our system."

When asked by Mayor Jenn Weaver about the enforcement of hot tubs, Miller described them as "complex" and "complicated" items that haven't yet been identified by his team. Hot tubs would be included in the discussion, he said, upon a forthcoming adoption of a new plumbing code.

The long line of public speakers at the Town Hall gathering didn't agree with Strandwitz's description of possible cross-connection hiccups in terms of their frequency, including Tom Gamble, whose in-ground pool isn't in "any way" linked to the public water supply system.

"Occasionally, we will fill it with a garden hose as most people do [who] don't have autofill. If you look at risk management, it's impossible to eliminate the risk," began the Murdock Road resident. "Risk management is looking at low probability, high consequence events. I would submit that although it's theoretically possible for a hose in the pool to back siphon into the water supply, there is a chain of events that would have to occur for that to happen.

"The water pressure would have to drop from the main, the … valve would have to be on, etc., etc. That's possible. It is unlikely. I fully support protecting the water supply, any sane person would. Certainly, any facility that's connected with an autofill feature makes perfect sense. But for those who top off the pool a few times a year with a garden hose, this really does seem like overkill, in particular for that kind of money. I just think you’re killing a fly with a howitzer."

Local nurse Pamela Pribula shared her thoughts as well, explaining how she and her husband — a 30-year pump and valve salesperson — have researched the matter and spoken to experts across the country about the viability of fitting their connected pool with a RPZ (Reduced Pressure Zone) back flow assembly to ward off contaminants.

She concluded that a more affordable vacuum breaker would sufficiently protect their pool area, as the one-way valve apparatus is designed to prohibit water from being siphoned back into the public potable (i.e. drinkable) water system.

In addition, Pribula alerted the Commission to RPZs carrying California P65 warnings of cancer and reproductive harm.

Further, she referenced a program utilized in Nashville, Tennessee that provides site surveys for every resident with a swimming pool, and suggested that a similar plan be implemented on a local level.

Fellow community member Danny Davis also sang the praises of site surveys that he believes would solve the Town's current "one-size-fits-all" strategy.

"If you could come to my house and explain to me how water could be siphoned out of my pool, which is probably 20 feet lower than the water line at our house, I’d love to hear how that could happen," he said, while opining that individual inspections wouldn't require a Herculean effort on the part of Town Utilities. In fact, he pointed out that the 60 total pools in Hillsborough constitute a minuscule .008 percent of the roughly 7,000 water connections in town.

At the conclusion of public comments, the ball was back in the Commission's court, as one elected official after the next backed the idea of pausing the Cross Connection Program in the interest of examining a different fine structure, ways to make it more cost-efficient for residents and placing a higher focus on education as it pertains to safeguarding the water supply.

"It bothers me that our language is not clean, it's not clear. Language matters and it needs to be clean," affirmed Town Commissioner Kathleen Ferguson.

Colleague Robb English, on the other hand, called for a revision of the program by the Town's Water and Sewer Advisory Committee based on the fact that cross-connection initiative is being rolled out according to a code that hadn't been enforced in 15 years.

As a result of the Commission's views on the subject, Weaver reported the Town's primary considerations in reviewing the program as follows: education, analyzing the requirements of direct/indirect connects, interest in adding an air-gap option (a physical distance between a water outlet and tank) and the possible addition of air hose bibbs.

"I would suggest that we don't ask the Water and Sewer Advisory Committee to do this from scratch," maintained the mayor in reference to past research performed by Town staff.

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